For some reason, I woke up at 1:27 this morning and could NOT fall asleep. I don’t recall dwelling on anything specific, or being worried or anxious about anything, I just couldn’t sleep.
This was good (????) because I heard Carla get up at 4:00 and then I heard her sweet little voice call out, “Hello?” (Does she do this on nights when I’m not awake? Breaks my heart a little to think of that.) I went into her room and she was in tears because her leg was hurting so! much! I rubbed her leg for awhile and then she tearfully informed me that it wasn’t helping, so I gave her Tylenol and offered an ice pack. She declined the ice pack because the pain was in her entire leg, not in one specific spot.
Poor kiddo. My diagnosis is growing pains (after shooing some very unpleasant frets about blood clots – why does my brain hate me?). Did you ever have growing pains? I remember getting them, that awful deep ache in both legs. The medical sites say that the pain is largely muscular, and that doctors don’t think growing hurts – despite the fact that the pains occur largely in growing children and tend to stop when the children stop growing. But whatever, nameless heartless overly literal doctors.
Carla agreed to try some stretches, so I led her through a few knee bends and some downward dog. She had to show me child’s pose and cobra as well, even though I doubt those did anything for her pain and she ran through her “flow” at such lightning speed I don’t see how it could have been at all relaxing. At 4:37 she was still Wide Awake. I suggested she try one of my getting-to-sleep strategies (I have taught her getting-to-sleep strategies multiple times, but she never remembers them and has, until last night, mainly refused to try them), which was retracing the steps of a favorite walk. I suggested she think about going over to our neighbor-with-a-puppy’s house, and think about each step she takes to get there in as great detail as possible. She closed her eyes and was quite still for awhile. At 4:52 I whispered that I was going back to bed, and she told me that she was at the point in the walk where she was putting on her shoes. Great.
“If I’m not asleep by 5:30, can I come get you?” she asked. She was so pathetic, and her leg still hurt. Against my better judgment, I said, “Do you want to come sleep in my room?”
Surprisingly, she declined. (Actually, what she said was, “I don’t think that would have any effect” which was a very surprising sentence to hear from a sleepy nine-year-old.)
I went back to bed and lay there, awake, waiting for her to come get me. (She never did!) I finally fell asleep shortly after my husband’s alarm went off at 6:00, only to have a nightmare that my mother-in-law, who is supposed to arrive next weekend, had instead arrived today. It was extremely stressful, as though the worst possible thing would be for my mother-in-law to show up when I had some clutter in the kitchen or had not yet washed her bed linens. She would be fine and cheerful about the whole thing, honestly. But in the dream, it was A HORROR.
Somehow Carla and I made it out the door to school, and then I went for a four-mile walk with a friend I haven’t seen in weeks, which was a very good second start to the day. Then I went to Trader Joe’s and then to the library, where I picked up my copy of The Accomplice, on hold after Birchie spoke so highly of it. (I know literally nothing about it, except that Birchie recommended it. It’s quite fun to dive into a book that you know nothing about, except when your husband asks you what it’s about and then screws his face up into perplexed concern when you say you don’t know.)
But when I got home, things took A Turn: I had six emails from my bank, all saying in their typical panicked way, “You recently made a large transaction” followed immediately by “Card Alert – Review This Transaction.” The bank does this – sends two apprehensive emails – for every transaction, and I have learned not to get terribly stressed. But this time, I had NOT made any transactions, especially not with the M*** Store in Washington State.
The thing is, I had also not made any transactions with the M*** Store in the first week of November, when two charges of $.99 each hit my account. After scrutinizing both my memory and my account at the M*** Store (from which I cannot recall ever having purchased anything, although perhaps I did once a million years ago since I do have an account), I called my bank and they cancelled my card and sent me a new one.
So the card that was charged today was a BRAND NEW CARD. And I know for a fact that I have only used it at two places, one that rhymes with GayGal and the other that rhymes with Glamazon.
I have cancelled this brand new card – and disputed the three charges of $.99, $.99, and $9.99 respectively – and I guess now I wait for the new card. Hopefully the holiday gifts that I charged to it this weekend will go through. SIGH AND ARGH. And also, HOW? How is someone accessing my card? How did they get it so soon after I cancelled the previous one? Why are they so hell bent on buying things from the M*** Store?!? My husband suggested that the fraudster had put some sort of recurring charge on my previous card, and that the card company automatically updated the number once I got the new one. So I have talked with my bank about THAT. I hope we communicated clearly about the possibility, but honestly I’m not sure. Fortunately, it is my personal account and has only a little bit of money in there, and fortunately I check my email way too frequently, so I caught the unauthorized charges early both times. But it sure is ANNOYING.
On to dinners.
December starts this week, people! It’s happening!
We have three measly weeks left of school until a two-week winter break. Three weeks of all the activities. One week of my mother-in-law visiting. One call week. We’re going to POWER THROUGH.
Dinners for the Week of November 28-December 4
- Mulligatawny Soup: Per my mother’s suggestion, I am going to make this with leftover turkey instead of chicken. Even if I don’t like the result (I hate turkey), my husband will eat it.
- Spicy Chickpea Bowls: I have some chicken breasts I can chop up for my husband. I do need to whip up a batch of the ginger garlic sauce that this recipe calls for, which is a pain. But it is SO NICE to have a bag full of ginger-garlic sauce cubes in my freezer, and they last quite a while.
- Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken with Steamed Broccoli: We haven’t had this in a very long time and it’s good and it’s a slow cooker meal. Enough said.
I am also going to make another batch of butternut squash soup because it is easy and delicious and I am in a Soup Mood. Plus, Trader Joe’s had a lot of very nice looking, pre-cubed butternut squash at a very good price.
Trader Joe’s also had a big container of cubed sweet potatoes, which I bought on a whim… but now I don’t know what to do with them! Roast them? But then… do what with them? I have tried roasted sweet potatoes on salad before and I do not care for it. What would YOU do with a huge container of cubed sweet potatoes? (I am not adding them to my butternut squash soup – I prefer my soup to be pure.)
Also: I forgot to buy iceberg lettuce until the last possible second. (This was at the other grocery store I went to, specifically to buy bell peppers for the chickpea bowls. I cannot eat the chickpea bowls without bell peppers. And Trader Joe’s peppers were all soft and wrinkly. Ew. I need a nice crisp, unwrinkled pepper.) All my stuff (more than just bell peppers, I’M SORRY I HAVE A PROBLEM) was already on the belt; there was a woman behind me in line. I did the thing where I speed-walked over to the produce section and grabbed the first head of lettuce I saw so I could get back without anyone feeling like I was abusing the checkout section. But then I put the lettuce down, because it was very light, and grabbed another. ALSO very light, but now I was panicking, imagining the woman in line behind me tapping her foot and sighing in my general direction. I should have just put it down and survived ONE SINGLE WEEK without iceberg lettuce (I have baby spinach! I have green leaf lettuce!) but I didn’t; I ran back to the checkout line and paid for my groceries and only then did I discover that my very small head of iceberg, which will probably turn out to be three or four outer leaves and nothing else, was THREE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. That is ridiculous. That is a ridiculous price for a giant heavy head of iceberg! That is a ridiculous price for a plastic clamshell of pre-washed, pre-cut gourmet lettuces! Ridiculous! And yet I paid it! Maybe this is why I am a target of fraud; clearly I am not all that careful with my money. SIGH.
This is my present and my future, folks. Screeching in disbelief about the absurd pricing of lettuce.
Okay. That was a much complainy-er post than I intended, but there you have it. It’s a post-holiday Monday, after all.
It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San’s blog here.
I would saute the sweet potatoes in a little olive oil, with some sliced chicken sausage (or another kind of sliceable sausage, like Kielbasa) and have it for breakfast. It’s a favorite of mine! Better with a fried egg imho, but I know you don’t do those. 😉
I used to make a sort of “hash” out of sweet potatoes. I’d saute them in pan – when they were almost cooked I would add peppers and onions, cumin and coriander and whatever else I wanted to flavor it with, plus some sliced chicken sausage. And then I’d sometimes eat it like that, or with a runny egg on top (Can’t remember how you feel about runny yolks – I love them but know they are disgusting to many). I don’t know why I haven’t made that dish in the last several years. Now I need to!
I just think you and your daughter have such a sweet relationship – good job mama! We like to make foil packets and put chopped sweet potato and onions mixed with olive oil and garlic, salt, pepper and then cook them on the grill while we make burgers or steaks.
Sheet pan dinner with those roasted sweet potatoes!
I LOVE to read a book without knowing anything about it. You just open that first page and it could be a comedy or a mystery or a drama or a sci-fi epic. I mean, if you’re reading a physical book you probably know something based on the cover, but if you’re reading a Kindle version, all bets are off. It’s so exciting to me. (Also, I read a lot of Bad. Books. It’s possible that I should do more research to avoid this phenomenon.)
Oh my goodness what a night. I have those “I’m wide awake for hours” nights as well, but it’s because I’m old! And I don’t have to get a child out to school. Here comment of “I don’t think that would have any effect” did make me chuckle though. My kids also suffered from so-called growing pains. They definitely do exist and from what I could tell, they are very painful. Poor thing. I’d toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil & cumin and roast. I make these as a side all the time. But then, I think we are a little more flexible on the foods we enjoy than perhaps you are??:)
I would throw the sweet potatoes out and ask myself what I was thinking for purchasing them in the first place. I despise sweet potatoes – you think you have a problem? I am of the mind that potatoes should NOT be sweet. There I admitted it. 😉
Credit card fraud is SUCH a hassle and fills me with complete and utter dread (I had to deal with this once with a business card and it was such a nuisance; there are so many things to cancel and change and then make sure automatic billing is covered by another card/account). I am SO, SO sorry this is happening to you and I really hope this gets fixed for good ASAP.
I remember some other banking debacle too? Trying to shut down an old dormant account or something. You have paid your dues in terms of banking woes. Come on universe – give her a break!
I 100% believe in growing pains. My nephew had them constantly as a child (he’s now VERY tall?!), and my son has them regularly, too. A warm Magic Bag sometimes helps, but when he was having issues every night, I would sometimes find him sleeping over the edge of the bed. He would get some relief by dangling his legs over the edge and letting gravity sort of “pull” them down.
I’m so sorry you had a rough sleep, but sick/suffering kids in the middle of the night can be so quiet and endearing and I’m really glad you were able to help Carla work through her discomfort. Also: “I don’t think that would have any effect?” That is priceless ❤
And I can relate to company nightmares; I recently had a dream that certain family members moved in to live with us. I literally woke up in a cold sweat. It was not a dream – it was a NIGHTMARE!
Hahaha… yes, clearly you’re a victim of fraud because of your gullibility- that is a lot for a little bit of iceberg lettuce.
i have a suggestion for your sweet potato cubes- you could use them to make a breakfast hash. That’s what I would do!
I don’t remember having growing pains when I was little, but my kids had them- they are scary! That sounds like a hard night for both of you. I’m impressed you were able to get up and go on with a “normal” day.
This is the Monday-est of post-holiday Mondays even with the growing pains. I just wanted to throw my alarm across the room this morning which would have been hard since it’s my watch and attached to my wrist and all.
All that I knew about the Accomplice going in was that I was in a reading rut and it was by the same author as another book that I liked. I think that’s the right background to have. I hope you like it!
I recently had a dream in which I gave my mom a gift bag, and in it, instead of a gift for her, were dozens of gifts given to my family that were heading for donation. She kept pulling out each item and said “didn’t x like this” and I’d make some excuse that they outgrew it, but the tags were still on. I woke up in a cold sweat. IMAGINE.
That card fiasco, I could scream! What a pain. Aieeeeee!
Btw, iceberg is $5/ head here! Five dollars! And yes I paid it.
Those bank emails are scary! And how frustrating to get your card stolen *again*. I hope it gets resolved quickly. Our card got scammed a few years ago and it took ages to re-sort all the direct debits and reoccurring transactions. Recently I locked myself out of my own online banking and I haven’t been able to get back in and I’m just hoping all my money is still there – if I can’t get in I assume fraudsters can’t as well?
$3.50 for iceberg lettuce seems nuts but also, it’s lettuce in November so as long as you enjoy it I think it’s a worthwhile purchase.
The growing pains are a thing! ** Not a doctor here, but I think they are from muscle fatigue. The body is growing fast and the muscles are trying to keep up, in my theory anyway ** I remember my dad rubbing Bengay on my sore legs in the middle of the night when I was at that age. When my kids were younger, we were up many a night dealing with them. For some reason, my daughter’s feet and toes were always achy.
1. Chickpea bowls – do you use a full 1/4 cup of aromatics? I’m afraid that might be a lot of garlic and ginger, but perhaps not. Is that pre or post mincing?
2. Mulligatawny soup makes me think of Seinfeld. I don’t think I’ve ever had it.
3. I had a weird dream last night that I was meeting up with an ex boyfriend, a guy I dated 2 boyfriends before my husband. While I really liked him at the time, I never considered him marriage material and the last time we spoke he kind of annoyed me, but in my dream we were bemoaning the fact that we are both married and we were completely in love, and despite the fact that he is (in real life) obsessed with health and staying thin, and I weigh a good 25 lbs more than I did then, he still was very much into me. I woke up and thought, “what the heck did THAT mean?” I mean, what does he represent in my subconscious? Who knows.
1. I use approximately 1 Tbsp grated ginger, 1 Tbsp minced garlic, and a minced shallot (or a shallot’s worth of minced onion). It is a very forgiving recipe, so you can measure it pre- or post-mince. Let me know if you try it (we are having it tonight) and the mulligatawny and what you think about them.
I vividly remember crying out in the night when my legs hurt. I was in about 1st grade. My mom would come in and rub my legs. That is the pits.
How people manage to steal identities or just credit cards, etc is above my paygrade. I hate having to get a new credit card, because so much is tied to it. Irritating.
I am going to look into this chicken lemon crockpot meal. I’m sure you’ve posted it before. I hope I have the ingredients in my kitchen, because I’m ready to try something new.
I have many nights (or early mornings) where I wake up with my brain just rolling through every.darn.thing.
I vividly remember having growing pains which is weird since I didn’t grow past 5’3. But yes, those pains hurt…my legs would just ache and ache. Poor Carla, but she is so lucky to have such a sweet and compassionate Mama.
We use LifeLock because we had so many fraud attempts on us…but I suppose the thiefs work hard at what they do.
You had me giggling at GayGal.
Oh, I totally had growing pains! They were so, so painful. I remember them vividly! Sometimes when I have leg pain, I like to imagine my bones have started to grow again and I will soon be a svelte 5’5 (being 5’2, growing 3 inches would be amazing!) Alas, I stopped growing in, like late elementary school and that was that.
Will forever be calling them GayGal and Glamazon, thank you very much.
I’ve been looking for more soup recipes and that Mulligatawny Soup sounds amazing. I never heard of it but thanks for sharing the recipe.
Ugh. I hate not being able to fall asleep – I usually don’t have any trouble sleeping but I will keep your strategies in mind!
I remember having growing pains and it was no fun at all. I don’t think I had any solution on how to treat it. Hope Carla feels better soon.
Hope you figure out your card issues. Very scary but good you. have realized it every time.